MARCUS CATO

THE Romans always called those who distinguished
themselves, but received no honors through their
ancestors, new men, and this was the name they gave to
Cato, though he used to say that he was new only with
regard to offices, but in so far as the services and
virtues of his ancestors were concerned, he was very
ancient.

Originally, his name was Marcus Priscus, but it was
afterwards changed to Cato on account of his wisdom;
for catos is a Latin word, meaning wise. Marcus Cato
was a strong, healthy youth, with a florid complexion
and gray eyes. He was brought up in camps and
accustomed to a life of discipline and temperance,
which fitted him for his later duties. Eloquence seemed
to him such a necessary accomplishment that he studied
hard to become a good orator, and the people of the
neighboring villages would send for him to plead their
causes because he did it so willingly and so well.
Perhaps another reason for employing him was that he
would never
[310] accept a fee. He was glad of the opportunity of
exercising his talent, but he was all the while longing
for military glory.

His first campaign was made when he was only seventeen
years of age. Hannibal was then laying Italy in ruins,
and not many years later it was Cato's pride to show
the number of scars that marked his breast. He always
marched on foot, followed only by one servant, who
carried his provisions, even after he had risen to a
high office, and he was so kind and considerate that
when not on military duty he would wait on himself, and
even prepare his own food. He never drank anything but
water, except when his strength and spirits were
exhausted, then he would take a little wine.

Cato had a farm, on which he lived when not engaged in
war, and while there his habits were as frugal and
economical as possible. The estate adjoining his farm
belonged to a nobleman named Valerius Flaccus, a man of
influence and great wealth. He often heard his servants
speak of the laborious life his neighbor led; how he
went early in the morning to the various towns in the
vicinity to argue cases of law, and then returned to
his own farm and worked hard with his domestics all
day, afterwards sitting down with them and sharing
their coarse food. They told, too, of many instances of
kindness and consideration, as well as of the witty and
sensible sayings of Cato. Valerius always wanted to
know superior people, and liked to encourage those who
were striving to do right, so he sent Cato an
invitation to dine. The two men saw each other
frequently after that, and Valerius discovered many
excellent traits in Cato that only needed a chance for
development; he therefore persuaded him to go to Rome
and apply himself to affairs of state.

The young man soon gained friends and admirers, and
Valerius helped him to rise to several high positions,
until he became his colleague as consul and censor. All
the young men of Rome tried to become public speakers
because they had such an admiration for Cato, whom they
called the Roman Demosthenes. From what is said of him
by several historians, it is probable that he was quite
as eloquent as the Greek orator. But few of Cato's
admirers were willing to work as hard as he did in
tilling his fields, or to live as plainly and dress as
poorly. He always said that he did so in order
[311] that he might be the better prepared for hard service
when his country needed him, and even when he was an
old, gray-haired man he continued robust and healthy to
the last. He inherited a beautiful piece of Babylonian
tapestry, but sold it because, as the walls of his
house were neither plastered nor whitewashed, he could
not use it. In short, he thought that a man should own
nothing that he could do without, and that it was
better to have fields where food could be raised than a
flower-garden that needed care. Only useful things had
value in his eyes, but he carried this idea to an
excess that made him cruel, for when a domestic grew
old in his service he turned him off instead of taking
care of him. When he was consul, he left his war-horse
in Spain to save the public the expense of his freight,
but it is a question whether it was a virtue to abandon
an animal that had carried him safe through the war.

Perhaps a good idea of the character of Cato may be got
from some of his sayings, which we will repeat. One day
the Romans were very unreasonable in their demand for
corn, and he attempted to argue with them. He began his
address thus: "It is a difficult task, my
fellow-citizens, to speak to the belly, because it has
no ears." He was so displeased with the extravagant
habits of the Romans that he said, "It is a hard matter
to save a city from ruin where a fish is sold for more
than an ox." On another occasion he declared that the
Roman people were like sheep, that could not be made to
stir alone, but would follow their leader in a body.
The men to whom no one would listen could lead a crowd
with the greatest ease. Wishing to encourage virtue, he
said, in one of his speeches, "If it is by virtue and
temperance that you are become great, do not change for
the worse; but if intemperance and vice have made you
great, change for the better; for you are already quite
great enough." He found fault because the same persons
were often chosen as consuls, and said, "Either you
think the consulate worth little, or few worthy of the
office." When the Romans sent three ambassadors to the
king of Bithynia, one with the gout, one with a
recently-healed fracture of the skull, and the third
not much better than a fool, Cato said, "They have sent
an embassy which has neither feet, head, nor heart."

One of his sayings was, "Wise men learn more from fools
than fools from the wise; for the wise avoid the errors
of fools, while
[312] fools do not profit by the example of the wise." He
once made this jest about a fat man: "Of what service
to his country can such a body be, which is nothing but
belly?" He also said that in all his life he only
repented of three things: the first was that he had
trusted a woman with a secret; the second, that he had
gone by sea when he might have gone by land; and the
third, that he had passed one day without doing any
important business.

To a wicked old man he said, "Old age has deformities
enough of its own; do not add to it the deformity of
vice." A tribune who had the reputation of a poisoner
wanted to have a bad law passed, and worked very hard
for it; whereupon Cato said to him, "Young man, I do
not know which is more dangerous, to drink what you
mix, or to confirm what you would make a law."

During his consulship with his friend Valerius Flaccus, he was sent in
command of the army to fight the Spaniards, and while
he was subduing their cities a great army took him by
surprise, and he was in danger of being driven out of
the country with dishonor. He sent to the Celtiberians
for aid, and they demanded an enormous sum of money
for their services. The Roman officers thought it
shameful that they should be obliged to purchase
assistance, but Cato said, "It makes no difference; for
if we conquer, we shall pay them at the enemy's
expense; and if we are conquered, there will be nobody
either to pay or to make the demand." He gained the
battle, and after that was successful everywhere. He
often boasted that he conquered more cities in Spain
than he had stayed there days. So much was he dreaded,
that when he wrote letters to the commanders of several
fortified towns ordering them to tear down their walls
and towers, they immediately obeyed.

On his return home Cato was honored with a triumph, but
he by no means felt that his work was done; on the
contrary, he publicly offered his services to his
friends and his country whenever they should be
required, and continued to plead cases of law for those
who sought him.

It was not long before he was called into action, for
Antiochus the Great, King of Syria, marched into Greece
with an army, creating no little commotion there, and
the Roman forces were sent over to fight him. Antiochus
blocked up the narrow pass of Thermopylæ, and added
walls and intrenchments to those that already
[313] existed there. The Romans were at a loss how to
approach, until Cato remembered that the Persians had
made their way round the mountains and come upon
Leonidas from behind when he defended the pass with
three hundred Spartans. Under his direction, therefore,
the troops began to ascend the mountain, but the guide,
who was one of the prisoners, lost his way and wandered
about among such dangerous precipices that the soldiers
were in despair.

Cato saw the danger, and ordered his forces to halt,
while he, with one Lucius Manlius, a dexterous climber,
went forward in the middle of a dark night and
scrambled among wild olive-trees and steep rocks until
they found a path that seemed to lead down to the
enemy's camp. There they set up marks to guide them on
their return, and went to fetch the army. But when they
had all reached the place and begun to march farther,
the path suddenly failed, and they found themselves on
the verge of a steep precipice. At last day dawned, and
the Grecian camp with the advanced guard could be seen
at the foot of the precipice. Cato halted and sent for
the Firmians, saying that he wished to speak with them
in private. The Firmians belonged to a Roman colony,
and had proved themselves the bravest and truest of
soldiers in time of danger. When they presented
themselves, Cato said, "I want to take one of the enemy
alive, so that we may learn who compose the
advance-guard, what is their number, and what
preparations have been made to fight us. But the
business requires the speed and ferocity of lions
rushing among a herd of beasts."

The Firmians required no second bidding, but promptly
rushed down the mountain, surprised the guard and put
them to flight, and brought back one of their number to
Cato, as he had ordered. The prisoner, upon being
questioned, said that the main body of the army was
encamped in the pass with the king, but that six
hundred selected Ætolians guarded the heights. Of such
a small number, even though they were selected, Cato
felt little fear, so he had the trumpets sounded, and
started forward, sword in hand, shouting to his army to
follow. When the Ætolians saw him advancing they fled
to the main body, and created the wildest confusion
among the forces.

At the same time Manius Glabrio, the Roman consul,
attacked Antiochus from below, and entered the pass
with his whole army.
[314] Antiochus was struck in the mouth with a stone, which
knocked out several of his teeth, and caused such
intense pain that he was forced to turn his horse and
retire. His soldiers then lost heart, and pushed back
through the narrow defiles, trampling each other down
as the Romans crowded upon them, until all perished.

Cato gives an account of this exploit in his writings,
and praises himself very much for it. He says, "All
those who witnessed the action were ready to declare
that Cato owed less to the people of Rome than the
people of Rome owed to Cato; the consul, Manius, coming
hot from the fight, took me in his arms and embraced me
for a long time; he then cried out with joy that
neither he nor all the people together could ever
sufficiently reward Cato."

Immediately after the battle the consul sent Cato to
carry the news of the glorious result to Rome. He
arrived there in five days, and was the first to report
the victory. Great rejoicings followed; the whole city
was filled with sacrifices, and the Romans were made
happy by the belief that they had power to conquer
every sea and every land.

Cato was not prominent on the battlefield again after
the victory he won over Antiochus, but he interested
himself in politics, and made it his special duty to
accuse criminals and have them arrested. One day he met
a young man who had brought an enemy of his dead
father to disgrace. Taking him by the hand, Cato
congratulated him, and said, "You have done well;
lambs and goats are not the proper sacrifices to offer
to our dead parents: the tears and sufferings of their
enemies are better."

He was constantly accusing one person or another, and
of course the tables were often turned on him, his
enemies never losing the slightest chance of bringing
him to justice. He was brought up before the court at
least fifty times for various offences. The last trial
took place when he was eighty-six years old, and on
that occasion he was heard to say, "It is hard that I,
who have lived with men of one generation, should be
obliged to make my defence to those of another."

Ten years after his consulship, Cato stood for the
office of censor, the very highest one in the republic.
A censor had a great deal of power, and there were
never more than two at a time. If one died during his
term of office his place was not filled, because it was
[315] considered an evil omen for a censor to die; but the
other one had to resign, and then two new ones were
chosen. The office was held for eighteen months, and
the duties were numerous. They consisted in taking the
census, and this gave the name to the office
originally, superintending the public morals, and
inquiring into the life and manners of each citizen.
The censors also had charge of the public money. They
had the right to reprove or punish a person for not
marrying, for breaking a promise of marriage, for any
sort of dissipation or bad conduct, for extravagance in
his household, or for failing to promptly educate his
children; for the Romans did not think it proper for
any one to follow his own free will without control. A
censor could even punish a magistrate; he had power to
expel a senator who led a vicious life, or to deprive a
knight of his horse, and oblige him to go about on
foot. In short, the Roman censors held themselves
responsible for the public morals, and although they
could not deprive a man of life or property as the
courts of law could, they controlled his standing in
society, and removed him either to a more honorable or
less honorable tribe. They gave out contracts for all
the public buildings besides, and saw that they were
honestly filled.

So, when Cato stood as a candidate for this very high
position, he met with much opposition, because some
feared, others envied him. There were seven candidates
besides, who promised to be very mild in their
censorship, hoping thus to gain votes. Cato took a
different course. He stood up in the rostrum and
declared his determination, in case he should be
elected, to punish every instance of vice, for he said
that reform was greatly needed, and entreated the
people not to choose the mildest, but the severest
physician. "I am of that sort," he added, "and Valerius
Flaccus is another; with him for my colleague, and him
only, I could do good service to the country by putting
an end to the growing luxury of the times."

The Romans showed themselves worthy of great leaders,
for they chose the man who had promised to be a severe
censor rather than those who would be likely to flatter
them and overlook their faults. Cato and Flaccus were
unanimously elected.

Cato's first action as censor was to expel many of the
senators, and to place Valerius Flaccus at the head of
that body. He next
[316] made an attack on luxuries, and ordered all things not
absolutely necessary to comfort to be taxed so high
that scarcely anybody could afford to indulge in them.
This was all very well, but he made himself hateful to
many by causing water-pipes to be cut, so that water
might not be carried into private gardens and houses,
and by having all buildings thrown down which jutted
out into the public street. He lowered the price of
public works so much that at last a party headed by
Titus Flamininus complained of him to the senate, and
had all the bargains and contracts he had made for the
repairing and building of temples annulled, because the
work at such prices could not be well done, and there
was no advantage to the state in having bad jobs. They
went further, and had him fined; but, in spite of some
unpopular actions, the people must have been well
pleased with their censor, for they erected a statue of
him in the temple of the goddess of Health, and
inscribed upon it, "In honor of Cato, the Censor, who
by his wise discipline and good laws reclaimed the
Roman commonwealth when it was sinking into vice."

In private life Cato was a good father and husband, and
although he held so important a position in the state,
the care of his family was never neglected. He chose
his wife because she was well-born, for he said that
women of good families were more ashamed of an unworthy
action, and more likely to be obedient to their
husbands, than those of mean birth. It was his opinion
that a man who beat his wife or children laid
sacrilegious hands on the most sacred objects in the
world. A good husband he considered worthy of more
praise than a great senator, and he admired Socrates,
the renowned philosopher, for nothing so much as for
having lived contentedly with a wife who was a scold,
and children who were half-witted.

As soon as his son was old enough to study, Cato taught
him himself. He had a slave named Chilo, who was an
excellent teacher, but he did not choose that his son
should undergo the humiliation of being punished by a
slave if he happened to be backward in his studies. He
taught the boy to wrestle, to throw a dart, to ride, to
box, to endure heat and cold, and to swim the most
rapid rivers. He also wrote histories of the ancient
Romans for the boy's instruction, so that he was not
obliged to stir from his father's house
[317] for knowledge. But he was not strong, and could not
bear the severe discipline to which other young Romans
were subjected; still he became an excellent soldier,
and distinguished himself on the battlefield.

Cato had a peculiar method of managing his slaves,
which he purchased among the captives taken in war. He
always chose the youngest, because, like colts or
puppies, they could be trained as he pleased. None of
them were ever allowed to enter another man's house,
unless sent on an errand by Cato or his wife. It was a
rule with Cato that his slaves must either be busy or
asleep, and he preferred those that slept much, because
he thought they made better workmen if they had plenty
of rest.

When he was a young soldier, he never found fault with
the food that was placed upon his table, because he
thought it undignified to quarrel with a servant on
account of his stomach; but later in life, when he gave
entertainments, he became exacting, and if any of the
slaves waited carelessly or spoiled the food, he would
beat them as soon as the meal was over. He managed to
raise quarrels among his servants, because he feared
some bad results if they were too united, probably an
injury to himself or his family. If one of his slaves
was guilty of a crime, he was accorded a formal trial,
and then put to death in the presence of his
fellow-servants.

Although Cato was very rich, he lost no opportunity to
increase his wealth, even unjustly. He often said that
the man who was truly godlike and fit to be registered
in the lists of glory was he whose accounts at the end
of his life should prove that he had more than doubled
what he had received from his ancestors.

Still, Cato was always an enemy to too much luxury, and
constantly preached against it. Perhaps he was right
in that, but he was certainly wrong when he thought it
a disadvantage to become learned. The Greeks were far
in advance of the Romans at that period in their
studies, and when the two learned men, Carneades and
Diogenes, arrived in Rome as ambassadors, and by their
eloquence excited an interest in philosophy, Cato was
alarmed lest the young men of his country should grow
to prefer eloquence to fighting. He said very
emphatically, "When the Romans come to study and
understand Grecian literature, they will lose the
empire of the world." But he was wrong, for Rome was
never greater
[318] than when learning had reached a high pitch. She fell
in consequence of irreligion and wickedness.

Cato's dislike of doctors was so great that he never
employed one. Whenever any member of his family was
ill, he prescribed herbs, with duck, pigeon, or hare.
To be sure, he acknowledged that such diet made them
dream, and that ought to have been proof enough that it
was not proper, but Cato could not believe that anybody
knew anything better than he did. Both his wife and son
died under his medical treatment, but he himself
happened to be strong, and so lived to a good old age
in spite of his obstinacy.

His chief amusements were writing books and tilling the
soil, and in a work on country affairs he gives, among
other things, rules for making cake and preserving
fruit; for it was his desire to appear acquainted even
with such unimportant matters. To the very end of his
life he kept himself busy with public affairs, and his
last act in behalf of the state was the destruction of
Carthage. It is true that he died before that end was
reached, but it was he who urged on the war that led to
the downfall of Hannibal, and on his death-bed he
prophesied that Scipio was the person who would bring
the third and last war against the Carthaginians to an
end.

Scipio was at that time a very young man, and held only
the office of tribune in the army, but Cato had
witnessed extraordinary proofs of his conduct and
courage, and his prophecy proved to be correct.